SUNS  4331 Wednesday 25 November 1998



ENVIRONMENT: HOPE FOR NIGERIA'S OIL-PRODUCING REGIONS

Port Harcourt, Nov 23 (IPS/Remi Oyo) -- It has taken the death of eight minority Ogoni rights activists and the kidnapping of a number of foreign oil workers for the government to admit the scale of environmental crisis in the Niger Delta, where the bulk of Nigeria's oil is produced.

The activists, who included the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), were put to death in 1995, by the military government of Sani Abacha, now late.

Last week, Abacha's successor, General Abdulsalaam Abubakar, acknowledged the problem but fell short of making a public apology for the environmental crisis in the Niger Delta region, where 90 percent of Nigeria's export income come from.

"The Federal Government is aware that for about four decades, the people in the oil-rich areas have suffered from the environmental degradation of their land...the situation is unfortunate and regrettable", he said.

Abubakar, who was welcomed by placard-carrying youths during a two-day visit (Nov 18-19) to the Niger Delta, said the government would open up roads leading to the oil-producing areas, which contain the nation's petrochemicals and liquefied natural gas firms. He also announced the reopening of the Oil Mineral Producing Areas development Commission (OMPADEC) to speed up development in the region.

Saro-Wiwa and his group had complained about the innumerable oil spills caused by the use of outdated equipment and technology employed to maximise profits by multinational corporations like the Shell Oil Company which, they claimed, has destroyed farmlands, streams and creeks.

According to them, one of the most visible casualties of the oil spills has been the mangrove tree in the swamps. The mangrove which were a source of firewood and habitat for thriving wealth of seafood such as oysters, crabs, mussels have been unable to survive the toxicity of oil and are now being replaced by some 'useless' palms.

As a result, they said, Ogoni fishermen have not only lost their occupation, but also these rich sources of protein are now lost to the Ogoni people, who make up about 500,000 of Nigeria's 110 million population.